


dreams can lead you down dark alleys

by alfie_aurel



Series: ficlets and prompts [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, dc let them be brothers, do you ever have emotions about architecture and cities, goddamn shakespeare references, however, it’s from jason’s pov so i think i’m justified, which i convey via far too floral language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28926513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alfie_aurel/pseuds/alfie_aurel
Summary: a conversation in the early hours of the morning, on the edge of a building in Gotham City.or,“Jesus, I’ve been reading too much Tolstoy.” Jason murmurs to himself, brushing pastry crumbs off his armour. He balls the white paper bag in his hands. “Hey, Dick - reckon I could get this in that bin down there?”
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd
Series: ficlets and prompts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2092521
Comments: 4
Kudos: 46





	dreams can lead you down dark alleys

**Author's Note:**

> hello! i read under the red hood and cried! i also like architecture! somehow i semi-combined the two! i wrote this in the middle of the night so it is preachy as FUCK. there are also pastries.

It's strange just how many notable events in Gotham's history have gone down in alleys. Dingy ones especially, water dripping down from broken, moldy pipes onto pockmarked cobble-stones. Water mixes with blood mixes with rotten sewage, pearls and bullets lodged in the cement. The light is always just too little to see clearly, just too dim to distinguish a heap of rubbish from a cowering person.

For a city made up of contrasts - high skylines with their glowing skyscrapers and ‘sky’s the limit’ ethos overlook apartment blocks with faulty piping and flickering lights - perhaps it’s apt that the place of transition should act as a leveller. 

You can die, unnoticed, in an alley. By knife, by choking, whatever. If you’re lucky, you can make the obituaries list in the district paper. Most who befall this fate are not.

Equally, you can become the most famous murder victim of the week in an Gotham alley. Your death can define a dimension; your continued existence can drag it into war. 

But that’s only for the chosen few. 

“Jesus, I’ve been reading too much Tolstoy.” Jason murmurs to himself, brushing pastry crumbs off his armour. He balls the white paper bag in his hands. “Hey, Dick - reckon I could get this in that bin down there?”

There’s a thump behind him. “Ever heard of grace, Grayson?” Jason teases, watching as Dick gets up. Bastard must have been doing a handstand.

“Shut up.” Dick says, sitting down next to Jason on the ledge. “You startled me, that’s it.”

Jason raises an eyebrow. “Sure, Dickiebird. Still - do you think I can make it?”

“What?” Dick taps his fingers on the brick, dust covering the pads. 

“This bag - throw - bin down there. Got it?” Jason points in turn. He’s pretty certain there’s a bin in this alley. Might be the next one over but, eh, what’s another bit of litter here? 

Dick bends forward, pushing off of his hands, inspecting the alley. They’re only three floors up, this being a residential building, but the streets beneath them are dim. So much for the infrastructure initiative the new mayor had promised. Smirking, Dick replies. “No.”

It’s a game they used to play, before - before. When Dick was Nightwing and just starting to return to Gotham, the last few months before Ethiopia. On nights when it was just Nightwing and Robin out on patrol, or when crime was slow. 

Dick would get pastries from the 24/7 shop up in Midtown, or churros from that vendor in Burnside, and they’d sit on a roof-top and chat. Not about anything heavy, or anything related to the job - completely dissimilar to the all too grave and all too fleeting conversations Jason remembers with Bruce, or Gordon.

Eventually it fell into a pattern - Jason would ask about the Titans, and be regaled with the latest of Wally or Donna’s antics, and in return Dick would ask him about school. Jason vaguely remembers one night when he acted out a bit from _Cymbeline_ , pacing, teetering, on the edge of the roof. Knowing him, he did it flat out, hand gestures and all. 

‘Golden lads and girls all must, as chimney-sweepers, come to dust.’ Huh. Everything is the same, in the end. Everything ends in an alley.

“I think I could. Come on, Dick, I use guns.”

“Hm.” Dick leans back, head tilting to inspect the stars. He turns his head to look at Jason, and grins. “Still no.”

“Wow. Thanks for believing in me, big brother.” The sarcasm drips from Jason’s voice as he raises an eyebrow at Dick. 

“Always, Jay.”

Jason lines up the shot for where the bin should be, and throws. He’s pretty certain he makes it, but the wind and the sound of cars is too loud to tell. It’s the kind of noise that should be oppressive; the kind of noise that requires headphones and loud chords to drown out. In other cities, Jason might feel that way too, but it’s Gotham. The noise of the streets here is familiar to him as the texture of brick beneath his hands.

“Did you make it?” Dick asks, breaking the silence.

“Probably.” Jason settles his chin onto his palms, staring out across the skyline. It’s nearing dawn, neon signs beginning to disappear into the dawn sky.

Dick smiles again, and for a minute Jason feels like he’s 13 again, chattering away on the edge of a building. 

Alleys are not always places of pain or endings; they can be weaponised just as much as a crowbar or a gun. There, a boy can be found, then lost, then found once more. There, two brothers can start to mend a relationship marred by death.

Another night gone. It was not a notable night, in the grand scheme of the universe. This conversation above an alley would not warrant a mere footnote. But still, would you not say it is important?

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed! it'd mean the world to me if you left a kudos/comment, and i hope you have a nice day! <3
> 
> (if you wanna, you can find me on tumblr @cassiesandsmarke)
> 
> (also thank u to mel for looking this over, ur awesome <3)


End file.
